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Wow, what a work year 2004 was for me. I started a 384 page book job in February with full color illustrations on each page. The due date for the project was December 3, 2004. I don’t know what made me think I could do 384 pieces of art in one year, but I signed my name to the contract and there would be no turning back.

Of course, as I think back on it now, since I started the project in February, and it had a deadline in December, I did not actually have a full year to execute this project. I really only had approximately 10 months to do the 384 pieces of art. That would only be… perhaps… 300 days or so?

Plus I traveled to Europe a couple of times so that would take my work time down to… maybe… 200+ days to do the 384 pieces of art?

Throw in all the mandatory family/ school/ holiday traveling and that would leave what?… maybe… like… perhaps… well… I don’t really know how many days I actually had to complete this book.

(I never was all that good in math. Just another reason to choose funny picture drawing as a career path).

So… it was a pretty poor scenario I faced in 2004. A couple of hundred days to do close to 400 pieces of art in. For virtually an entire year, (if I was in town) I was in my studio, working an average of 14 to 16 hours a day.

During the first several months of this project, stress would pop me out of bed around 4 every morning. I would crank the coffee pot up and then work frantically until around midnight. Then stress would catapult me out of bed the next morning and I would do the same thing again the next day. And then again the next day. And then again the next day. And then again the… well… anyway… you get the idea. I did very little this year but work….

….but I did meet the deadline and the book is currently in production. It will be shipped to the printer sometime during the first half of 2005 with a release date scheduled for later on in the year. The pictures that flash at the top of this page are a kind of sneak preview for the new book. I will post more information on this project as it gets closer to market.

The Comments

Keegan Jones

I’m looking forward to checking out your new book job when it is published! Those flash header images look really good.

Kathy

I really enjoyed your site and loved the graphics and humour..Very Cool. Keep up the great work =) Hugs Kathy

Arvind

You borthers are rocking!! :) Keep the creative juices flowing….

Marsha

Love the website. My brothers are very cool. Can’t wait to see the new Bible. Brett has just started reading the last one. He told his SS teachers that his uncle Dennis wrote the Bible and there were lots of neat mice back in Jesus’ day.

Dennis Jones

Hi Marsha… always good to see one of the SistersJones strolling thru the site… If I’d have known you were coming I would have picked the place up a bit…

I try to have a major computer meltdown every eighteen months or so… whether I need one or not…

I have not been a computer guy for all that long. Being the visionary that I am, I never really saw any need for one personally. This all changed a few years ago when my oldest son, Nick, headed cross country to college. Before leaving he fished an old computer out of the attic and connected me to the internet. Over the next few months I became familiar with a foreign new concept known as E-mail.

When Nick came home for Christmas break he decided to advance my computing skills by helping me build a web page. I went out and bought a cheap scanner and started loading pictures onto the new site. My old attic computer was an entry level special we had bought for the kids back in the early 90’s. It tried its best, but it was never made to do the things we were trying to do with it. The computer gasped one last time and then the hard drive crashed. I lost everything. Computer crash number one.

I looked in the paper, found a PC on sale cheap, and bought it. It was during this time period that I started using the computer more for work instead of simply a diversion. Photoshop was becoming an everyday tool for me, just like a pencil or a paint brush.

Everything worked great for a year or so and then I decided to upgrade to Windows XP. I’m still not sure what happened, but as I was installing it my monitor went black. I launched into full scale panic mode. My computer troubleshooting skills consist of pressing random keys and hoping something good happens. My wife finally had to come to my rescue. She sat on the phone with a tech guy deep into the night trying to fix whatever it was that had happened. The two of them got it running again… sort of. (I now had two XP operating systems to choose from at startup (?) and things were kinda glitchy, but hey, at least I was in business again). I lost a whole lot of stuff on that one. Computer meltdown number two.

I got a Mac G5 over the Christmas break… (the fabled Cheese Grater) To make a long story short, in the process of switching from a PC to a Mac I lost a bunch of stuff… again. Quasi computer meltdown number three.

The only real problem I have at this point is that my web site is floating out in space and I cant get to it. The old web building program I had used to build it wont work on a Mac so I am having to learn a new one. (I don’t want to say its complicated or anything, but you have to be a rocket scientist to understand the book). It’s going to be a long time before anything new happens over on DJ-ART.com.

The good news is, if things run true to form, I shoud be good for twelve to eighteen months of trouble free computing….

….before the next big computer meltdown hits.

The Comments

Keegan Jones

Yes! It’s nice that the whole Brother Jones clan is now using a Macintosh! This book may be of use to you: Switching to the Mac.

mike

good choice of computers! Ive been using a g4 since 3 years ago and i didn’t need to reboot due to some stupid crash ever!

luis villegas

like I would say in spanish “estan perrones”, meaning you guys are bad. thank you for inspiring us.

Norman Bates

when are you ever going to put up something new?!

Dennis Jones

alas and alack… this is the problem with Brother Dennis… never anything new… I haven’t changed my other web page in nearly three years now… I will try to do better with this BrotherJones site…

Doug Jones

say… isn’t Norman Bates the name of the guy in Psycho that ran the Bates Motel?

I just got back from visiting my oldest son in Oklahoma. While there I had a chance to spend some time with an old friend of mine, Joe Bohrer.

Joe is one of the most imaginative artists I know. I am fascinated with his work and the creative way he goes about making art in general. We spent an afternoon in his shop where he basically gave me a tutorial on how he builds his stuff. It was a great time… and somewhat unusual.

A magician is hesitant to share his own personal tricks with another magician for fear of being ripped off. Artists can be the same way… but not Joe. He was out there showing me all the ins and outs of his trade and encouraging me to go give it a try. I appreciated that a lot.

If you want to see some cutting edge stuff you really need to take a look at Joe’s web site.

I gave a phone interview for my new picture Bible last Friday. I believe it was quite possibly the worst telephone interview ever recorded in the history of mankind.

I babbled incoherently for almost 20 minutes. Nothing I said made any sense. Nothing I said even came close to making any sense. I still have no idea what I was talking about, much less the poor guy on the other end of the phone.

The interview is for a CD the publishers will make for their sales people. They will listen to it and get familiar with the new product lines and the personalities behind them. Good luck figuring out what my book is about. I’m even confused about it now.

They assured me they would edit the conversation, put a bed of music under it and fix it up real good before they release it. I am one of ten authors on it. I have a feeling my segment is probably going to run… 17 seconds… tops.

The Comments

Doug Jones

maybe they can lay down a heavy beat underneath about 5 minutes of your talk and release it as a rap song. None of those things are coherent or understandable either. BrotherJones rap music… a great new item for our STORE!

I’m a new George Washington fan. Before now he was just the… father of our country-dollar bill guy to me and thats about it. But I have recently been reading a new book called “Under God” and the first story in it is about Washington and let me tell you something… GEORGE WASHINGTON ROCKS!

I found the story I was reading from this book on the internet at the Under God Web Site. You might enjoy reading it, too. It inspired me to do this picture.

The Comments

uncle eddie

looks real good, Clark! I’d like a T-shirt with that picture on it for one of the kids.

David Lee

You have a good looking site. Keegan did a bang up job.

Dennis Jones

Thank you… and as for Keegan… I now proclaim him… BROTHERJONES BOY GENIUS OF THE WEEK! Congratulations Keeg…

D.J. Smith

I think it was said of Eisenhower that as he was about to go to bed would go to a window of the White House, look into the sky and say something to the effect that “I leave it in your hands now.” He knew while he slept the country still needed protection. I might have that completely wrong…makes for a good post anyway. God bless our presidents Repulican or Democratic and God bless America. May we all be “George Washingtons.”

D.J. Smith

What does one have to do to get to see an original Dennis Jones illustration? I mean the real deal; no prints. Your work is just amazing. I want to study under you. Do you ever come to Nashville, Tennessee? We have the Grand Ole Opry, home of Contemporary Christian Music, and we do wear shoes and no, we don’t talk to each other in corn fields and salute our hometown populations like they did on HeeHaw. Come on people…

Dennis Jones

hmmm… thats interesting D.J….. my brother Doug lives in Nashville, doesn’t wear shoes, and always signs off on his e-mails with a great big HEE-HAW… (just one of the reasons I haven’t been down there in a while… that plus the fact he lives out in a cornfield somewhere)…

Doug Jones

I live in the cornfield so them thar revenuers cain’t find me…

D.J. Smith

WAIT…you’re related to THAT Doug Jones! Sweet! I can’t believe I didn’t recognize Doug’s work. I guess all this corn gets to you after a while. Is Doug the guy in a souped up Ford going down a dirt road running some of that thar white lightin’? Dennis, I hope y’all come on down for a visit sometime soon. We’ll have a good helpin’ of chitlins, mashed potatos n’ gravy, turnip greens, and pork rhines. We can wash it down with some sweet tea or lemonade. For desert we’ll break out the RC Cola and Moonpies. When can we expect you?

Don Jones

Dennis Jones

Wall YEE HAW that sounds mighty fine! Mighty fine indeed!

I drew caricatures at Opryland during my college years… Nashville is a great place…

D.J. Smith

Y’all come now, ya hear? We’ll leave the light on for you. My wife’s a mighty fine cook. She’ll fix up somethin’ that’ll make your brain beat out the top of yo mouth just to see what’s tastin’ so good! I wish I had gotten in on the charicture action at Opryland. I went to David Lipscomb for college and they closed down the park near the end of my college career. Someone from the same company opened a kiosk in Opry Mills, our overblown mall that resides where Opryland used to be. I talked with the folks there about how to develop the skills and eye of the charicturist they worked with. She said there was no “training” but the lady did give me some photocopied book that explains a bunch of stuff but nothing that helped make me a better illustrator. I really would like to expand my illustration skills to a professional level. I’m a partner in a graphic design firm in Brentwood and occasionally get asked to do some illustration work. Some serious, some humorous. I prefer humorous. I was trying to get an illustrator by the name of Travis Foster to help me and he was willing but we never have been able to make a connection to get the ball rolling really. I think I just need a little help to take the talent up a notch. I did have Frank Thomas, one of Walt Disney’s (the man Walt) Nine Old Men, critique one of my illustrations. I’ve been trying. Maybe one day. You guys all have some good stuff. Very inspirational for me. I appreciate it. Sorry to be long-winded. You know us hillbillies. We don’t get company very often and we still just take baths once every full-moon.

The winters here in northern Indiana can be long and hard. I stay indoors as much as possible because wind chills below zero and several layers of snow on the ground hold little to no appeal for me.

That is why I grow hard shell gourds during the summer.

Yep, I’m a gourd farmer and I live here on my gourd ranch. When the temperatures start falling outside I herd a couple of gourds in out of the corral and start working on them. They end up as all kinds of different… uh… things.

This is one I did last weekend. It looked like green turquoise when I was thru staining it. It is hinged in the back so it can open up. I like the way it seems to be ready to walk away as soon as I turn my back on it.

The Comments

mandy

thats a really cool gourd do you ever sell any if you do I WANT ONE

Keegan

Could this be the second incarnation of the “Phlegm” fantasy football team?

Dennis Jones

hmmm… is does sport the official Phlegm team colors…

D.J. Smith

Do you have to ride a horse when you’re herding gourds? Ever had a stampede of gourds nearly kill you? Everyone sing now…”Rollin, rollin, rollin, get them gourds a rollin, RAW GOURD!!!!!!”

Dennis Jones

Ride a Horse? Are you kidding me… it’s the 21 century… I am high tech… I use my riding lawnmower…

Don Jones

There was a movie about Dennis and his time in THE BIG HOUSE – The Gourdman of Alcatraz.

mandy

i really really really want that gourd!!!

Arnold

Do you have more gourds like this? If you do, you should post your collection online. I want to see them!

frappman

what are those little wing/legs made out of?

Dennis Jones

If you dig around on my other site (DJ-ART) you can find some gourds I did when I was first trying to figure out what I could do with them. They are somewhat crude efforts, but you might find them interesting. I will try to get some shots of my more current creations and post them in my portfolio section.

Those legs are made from a kind of particle board called MDF. Joe Bohrer introduced me to it the last time I was in Oklahoma.

mandy

CAN I BUY THAT GOURD FROM YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mandy

I WANT A GOURD NOW!!!!!!!

Dennis Jones

Hi Mandy… I might be wrong about this, but I kinda think you maybe are hinting to me that you might be interested in buying a gourd? Is that right? Because I’m really not sure if thats what you are wanting or not… unfortunately, my brother Don handles all gourd sells … (it was in the fine print of the BrotherJones website contract) I think you will need to talk to him over on his section… I wish there was something I could do to help, but my Brother Don runs a pretty tight ship…

mandy

so don can you get me a gourd

Chuck

Mandy, Those gourds retail for around 10,000 dollars. If you could post a comment with your credit card and mailing address I can see if I can pull some string. :)

American Chopper, Trading Spaces, This Old House most any kind of custom fabrication TV show fascinates me. I love to watch people create custom stuff from scratch or redo problem rooms in a house.

Inspired by these shows, this weekend my wife and I decided we would give our bathroom a makeover. We decided to do this midway through Saturday morning. There was plenty of time left in the day to simply paint the walls blue and leave the woodwork and trim white.

We spent the entire day getting the supplies we needed. Now our simple painting project was spilling over into Sunday afternoon. I taped everything up and started the first of many missteps with the paint. We finally quit for the night with the job undone.

Now it is Monday, and it seems that instead of going to the rink and playing hockey tonight, I will be on a ladder in my bathroom slopping paint. This is not exactly the way this thing was supposed to work out. Our little project is taking substantially more time than the big ones on TV do. They usually get massive jobs done in only one hour.

I can hardly wait to get this thing done and get back on the couch in front of the TV where I belong.

The Comments

Don Jones

This sounds all too familiar. It’s amazing that in your mind’s eye you can always imagine a flawless, smooth running job that might even appear enjoyable. I think this is due to those stinkin’ Do-It-Youself shows where you wear nice clothes and never get dirty.

Doug Jones

To complete a project like that in one day would be the EASY way… but not the JONES way! You have done us proud by upholding the Jones tradition of making everything harder and more complicated than it need be. I have mastered this art myself. I have a leaking pipe under the sink that I need to attend to… but I KNOW once I start messing with it, it would mean the end of all my free time for days…. the plastic bucket is doing well in the mean time…

Dennis Jones

My kitchen sink faucet head is attached to a retractable metal hose, which began to leak about a month ago… I contacted the manufacturer and they sent me a new hose… the lady on the phone assured me it would be easy to install…

I got busy on it and everything was going smoothly until I tried to yank the old hose up thru the faucet fixture… it got stuck… not knowing exactly what to do at that point, I decided to do the only sensible thing… I yanked on it really, really hard… now it was really, really stuck… We spent the entire Super Bowl weekend with no water in the kitchen because I had the sink all gummed up.

I finally had to call a contractor friend to come out and save me…

Doug Jones

YESssssss! you have acquired the “Jones” touch… congratulations. “If it doesn’t work… use a bigger hammer”

Dennis Jones

…wheres the fun in doing something right?

Don Jones

I always enjoy those put-it-together furniture deals… I have a whole drawer of extra parts and leftover pieces. The tool I find essential is a chisel. Last Sunday I jammed the ashtray in my car shut with my wife’s lotion bottle inside. At that point is was crammed so tight it would not budge. I proceeded to wedge the old chisel in and applied a little metal bending pressure (lotion squirting all over the floor mats…) and VOILA! A workable ashtray once again… more or less. And we don’t even smoke.

Dennis Jones

I appreciate the fact that some of those places stick in extra parts… but then you feel obliged to hang on to them when you get the contraption put together… they pile up… you forget about them… you find them years later but you don’t know what they are for… you want to throw them away but you dare not because they obviously are for something… it’s obviously some sort of industrial conspiracy… specifically aimed directly at the Brothers Jones…

Doug Jones

huh… I got a little bag of random parts too… If I throw it away, I will need something from it the very next day. It’s a no win situation.

Don Jones

The enviable LOSE-LOSE situation. Maybe we could move these parts on Ebay.

Dennis Jones

…these comments make a fine Neapolitan blend… I will go ahead and mix the strawberry back in…

Don Jones

Vanilla you’re up!

Doug Jones

The term French Vanilla is OUT… from now on it is Freedom Vanilla

Alex M.

Sorry if I sound like a total goof, but that entry was pretty amusing. I had to contain my laugh while working in my office. My dad works in the Painting Business and so he can do a bathroom in half a day no problem, me on the other hand didn’t receive the “gift” of craftsmanship. So, it would take me a week to do it. Heh.

Dennis Jones

It’s probably going to take me a week to paint this thing, too… I thought I was all done on Wednesday, but when I went in on Thursday I noticed blue paint all over the ceiling… How did that happen?… so Thursday night I was back in there trying to touch that up…

At this point I think what I need to do is put a whole bunch of stuff up on the wall (like at Applebees) and try to detract your attention away from the cruddy paint job…

Congratulations to Brother Doug on his giant painted guitar! I think it is really going to be a big hit in the music world. Case in point: This photo was snapped at the recent WeaselBoy Rock Yer Socks Off world concert tour in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. It seems their lead guitarist really likes Dougs paint job, too!

See Doug’s cool guitar here.

The Comments

Lily (not a cat!)

So I guess you can really play that guitar!

Dennis Jones

Yes Lilynotacat!, you really can…

Doug Jones

I still think Lily is a cat…

Dennis Jones

Doug, I’m glad you dropped by… I think your long lost cat TigerLily is typing messages in again…

Don Jones

The only drawback about Doug’s guitar- you can only play songs from the 60’s on it. Case in point, the guy in the picture is playing I Am A Rock. I am a rock. I am an island. And a rock feels no pain. And an island never cries.

Dennis Jones

I dont know if you noticed, but thats me on drums, Pete on keyboard, and Nick on guitar…

Don Jones

Den, I suspected as much… I thought it was either you or Ringo. That was during Pete’s BOY GEORGE phase wasn’t it? Man, you guys were tight (but loose).

Doug Jones

I do believe that “D” string is a tad out of tune….

Don Jones

That lead guitarist looks like he’s wearing graffiti painted long underwear. Fairly common outwear here in the Ozarks.

mandy

who is that playing the guitar

Dennis Jones

…thats Eddie… I think we were jamming on Eruption… but I cant remember now…

D.J.

I don’t mean to be a skeptic but I think someone’s really good with Photoshop. LOL.

Dennis Jones

huh? …photo-WHAT… are you talking about a camera or something?

DJ

Hey, did Eddie use his drill on that guitar to get that “industrial” sound? Too bad that one of the Jones boys isn’t in the picture in one of David Lee Roth’s jump suits. Go ahead…JUMP!

johnny

You know I would love to hear more about your oldest son Nick. He seems awesome!

bobby

ya tell us about him, this site could really use some more info on the man, maybe a whole page, with downloadable wallpapers and maybe some cool Nick screensavers.

Amy

I hear he’s a hottie too! Can you send me his number?

~

~ BROTHER JONES BONUS COVERAGE ~

Below is the gigantic guitar big brother Doug painted that sat in front of the Country Music Hall Of Fame in downtown Nashville during the summer of 2005.

I have an old banjo that has been leaning against the wall in my studio for years now. My first project of the weekend was to try to build something that could hold the banjo. In my mind this holder was going to be a beautiful art piece. It ended up being a nondescript mess of wood, paint and screws. The good news is… it does actually hold the banjo (but only if you balance it just right). Yes, it turned out pretty bad but still good enough to be the feature picture here on my journal page!

Since that project went so wrong I decided I would whip out a really cool picture for my portfolio page.

I knocked out a pretty decent drawing of an Indian and then proceeded to paint the living daylights out of it. You can always tell when I struggle with paint because the picture is dark and muddy. Realizing I was on a sinking ship I shifted immediately to last resort mode and started splattering paint all over the top of the picture in a pathetic attempt to trick people into thinking this is exactly the way I wanted it to look and it is actually a piece of really fine art. …but to no avail. Another bad job… but still good enough to be featured on my portfolio page!

We do have high standards.

BROTHERJONES.COM… Where the quality runs out… before the website locks-up.

Contemplating my next attempt at weekend art, I chose instead to put on my inline skates and cruise the neighborhood for a while. Fortunately when I got back I no longer had a desire to be creative and instead flipped on the TV, flopped onto the couch, and watched the Biker Build Off Marathon the rest of the afternoon.

I still cant figure out how everything they build on TV turns into something beautiful, and how everything I build turns into something that is only a day or two away from being hauled off to the land fill.

The Comments

Doug Jones

I guess I will have to agree with you here, Den. You are a complete and total failure at art. Have you ever considered selling Rainbow vacuum cleaners door to door? I hear it is very lucrative.

Don Jones

Dennis Did you incorporate some tinfoil in that banjo stand? What is the shiny stuff? I can still hear your rendition of Cripple Creek ringing in my dirty deaf ears

Dennis Jones

HEY!… I sold one of those sweepers in ‘77 so BACK OFF, man…

Dennis Jones

…sorry to snap at you, Doug… but I took my vacuum sweeper job very seriously… all nine days that I had it…

Dennis Jones

…that job was right before my plumbers assistant job digging ditches… that was one rough summer…

Dennis Jones

I started that summer selling shoes at Steves Shoes in downtown Kansas City…

Dennis Jones

I think I ended that summer sleeping in your floor in Nashville and drawing caricatures at Opryland…

DJ

And then they shut Opryland down right after you left right? Because we now have an overpriced mall in its place. WHY DID YOU HAVE TO LEAVE?!!!! WHY?!!! OH, THE HUMANITY!!!

DJ

You mean that’s a banjo? I thought that was one of your gourds. LOL.

Doug Jones

You can actually

Doug Jones

write more than a sentence

Doug Jones

on these comment things

Doug Jones

But this way it looks

Doug Jones

like you have LOTS of comments!

Doug Jones

good thinking, Dennis

Dennis Jones

I am shooting for the BrotherJones record for most journal comments and this seems to be the only way I will get it with this lame entry…

Don Jones

For a flood of words and a drought of ideas it’s BROTHER JONES!

Dennis Jones

…brothers… I hid a little surprise on the website yesterday… have you found it?

Doug Jones

As Schultz (Hogan’s Heroes) used to say… “I see NOTHING… NOTHING!”

Dennis Jones

Schultz… that could be helpful…

Don Jones

Hey, it’s like a treasure hunt! I hate treasure hunts.

Doug Jones

me too… I think he’s just trying to get more posts on this page

Dennis Jones

I am sure if you take the time to travel around the website you will be able to find the hidden treasure…

Don Jones

It’s more like a wild goose chase… so to speak.

Dennis Jones

Yes, Don… but let’s not lose site of what I am trying to accomplish here… only THE RECORD MOST NUMBER OF COMMENTS IN BROTHER JONES HISTORY! WOO WOO!

Marjorie

Happy Birthday! From one well-adjusted middle child to another.

Doug Jones

Since you don’t seem in a hurry to change this thing, I’ll add another comment to your list. It is hard to tell… is this stand made out of aluminum foil? Sure looks like it. Aluminum foil and turquoise is a killer combination!

Tami Otterstatter

Is it legal for someone who’s not a Jones to post a comment? Actually, spelling Otterstatter 50 times a day makes me long to be a Jones. Just checking in to see if I can find a brilliant artist to take a chance on a newcomer’s picture book… no banjo stands please! This must be my day! Not only did I track down my favorite illustrator, it looks like I also caught up with the guy who sold us that Rainbow 28 years ago – I think you owe me a drapery attachment!

Doug Jones

This IS your lucky day! Honorary Jones monikers can be purchased from the Brother Jones store. For a mere $50 YOU TOO can be a JONES.

Dennis Jones

Hi Tami… yes, it is legal for non-Jones’s to post comments here… it is actually encouraged… and Brother Doug graciously seems to be willing to sell you a Jones surname…

(we are very careful about handing those out… would not want to see a glut of Jones names out there)…

This would make it simpler for you to post in the future… instead of having to spell out that long, drawn-out Tami Otterstatter everytime, you could simply spell out Tami OtterstatterJones… much easier…

Doug Jones

hang on there… OtterstatterJones would cost EXTRA! Tami “when in doubt add a T” OtterstatterJones OK, how much extra if I hyphenate? Otterstatter-Jones adds that touch of class I’m after. Can I get a mug with that?

Dennis Jones

Hyphenation is always encouraged here at BrotherJones and is free… however… you cannot type over the date on your post as you did above… we will have to charge you extra for that…

Doug Jones

I think Tami deserves the BrotherJones COMMENT OF THE WEEK award given for entertaining comments above and beyond the usual drivel that gets posted here. What do you guys think?

Guy

yes

numero dos guy

si

Dennis Jones

Since I have been gone for a week and this is the only comment I have seen since I got back I will vote… yes… unless a better one comes along…

Tami Watchamastatter

I’ll-take-what-I-can-get! I’m afraid my 5 year old son has already trumped me on comment of the week: “My new friend’s name is Hannah. Too bad she’s a girl.” We gotta cut that child’s testosterone dosage!

I leave town for a week, come back, and find Socmo has made another appearance on Doug’s web page. I feel I need to try and clarify this fascination Doug has with sock monkeys.

This is something he has been dealing with for many years now. Here is a family photograph from a Christmas way back when and… yes that is Doug with his very first sock monkey. It has been a downward spiral since that point. Doug and SocMo are inseparable. It is similar to Linus and his blanket. Sad… so very sad.

Older children always have issues, as do the younger children. The burden always falls to we, the well adjusted middle children to keep things on the straight and narrow… right Margie?

The Comments

Don Jones

As I analyze this picture, it appears Margie is not hugging a Sock Monkey but some sort of little puppy? Doug still has that shirt hanging in his closet.

Dennis Jones

Yes, upon further analysis we can see the two older children receiving the coveted sock monkeys while Margie and I are getting who knows what… in fact… where am I in this picture?… I guess I must have been taking it…

mandy

you guys talk so much about socmo that he should have his own page on the brother jones site- he is so popular

mandy

the page would be called the adventures of socmo

Doug Jones

SocMo RULES!

Dennis Jones

Thats not a bad idea… SocMo writes much better journal page articles than I do…

mandy

everybody loves socmo

Don Jones

COMING SOON! Own your own SocMo for just $49.95. The Brother Jones web personality with the highest I.Q.

Dennis Jones

…maybe we can get mom to open a SocMo Sock Monkey Sweat Shop…

Perry and Mrs. Joyce

Brother Dennis: I just got this WebSite from Mother Jones, and you better tell her I contacted you, or we may both be in for it. You guys are just too clever for this Arkansan (by birth and retirement). Hug your Momma for me, when you see her. Cousin Perry

mandy

you should start selling sockmonkeys in the brotherjones shop because i would probobly by one

Margie

I never received a sock monkey for Christmas or any other event in my life. Should I have a problem with that??

Margie

I never received a sock monkey for Christmas or any other event in my life. Should I have a problem with that??

Margie

I never received a sock monkey for Christmas or any other event in my life. Should I have a problem with that??

Dennis Jones

WOW… THREE POSTS from my fellow middle child sister Margie… all saying the same thing… she must really mean business… that or she has one really weird computer that does everything in triplicate…

Doug Jones

I’ve been meaning to talk to Margie about her stuttering problem….

Roy

I know the person who took that picture and who made the monkey. Guess who????

Dennis Jones

Now Uncle Roy, don’t go trying to claim credit for this picture… I am pretty sure I was the one that took it… I distinctly remember having the camera up to my eye with one hand and my baby bottle in the other…

Roy

Dennis: As I recall you were never on the bottle.

Dennis Jones

hmmm… I think you might be right… it must have been a cup of coffee in my other hand…

Dennis Jones

…as I think about this a bit more I remember it very clearly… I was standing there with nothing on but a diaper, had the camera up to my eye with one hand and was holding a cup of coffee in the other. I was also smoking a carrot stick as I snapped the picture… thats why Margie has that shocked look on her face… it was quite a site…

Dennis Jones

…and as you can see, Doug was laughing AT ME because his baby brother is such a moron and Mary is obviously deep in thought trying to figure out some way to sit me down at the kitchen table and give me a crash course on manners and when and how to use them… DO I USE MY MANNERS NOW, MARY?

Don Jones

I was in the backyard stepping on rabbits.

Dennis Jones

I’m still mad at you about that…

Carrie

Does Don like stepping on rabbits? What are you talking about??

mandy

is that the same sock monkey you have now doug or did you get a new one

Don Jones

Carrie, I would rather not go into it… let’s just leave well enough alone. Let’s just say rabbits are jumpy and that makes little kids jumpy.
I’m not a rabbit killer like my brothers and sisters kept chanting…. over and over….